Follow Confucius, slow down on Sisyphus. I've always had mixed feelings on New Years. On the one hand it's a day or two to reflect on the past year, and it's events and accomplishments, (although, with this past year who knows if you'll really wish to reflect), followed by new year's resolutions and actions which I abhor. So much pressure on the New Year...
I am by no means a "newborn photographer", however I have photographed my fair share of toddlers, tots and tykes. A portrait is a portrait regardless of age, and what lights me up is capturing that innocence. Coming up on a year of Covid, I'm receiving an influx of calls for holiday gifts of maternity and soon to be newborn shoots in the New Year.
…And now there’s water on my floor. Four years later and my studio has never been the same. No one really prepares for a photoshoot. You have an idea, past experiences, but the day of the shoot in studio or on location can be generally… chaotic. And that’s kind of the theme for all art, organized chaos. So when your pregnant visionary emerges out of your studio bathroom with puzzled expression, and casually drops to the team… “So I just released a quarter cup of water in the bathroom?”, an apt response is to go speechless and or pale.
I was lucky enough to apprentice with the late great Chuck Bogana. Chuck being the last of a bygone era having done the final printing and retouching of legends Richard Avedon, Irving Penn and other masterful photographic Artists, was a master printer who taught me not only the finer points and the artistry that is fine art printing, but in his quiet zen like way, opened me up to what a photograph is and can truly be.
